Vézelay Abbey

Vézelay Abbey (French: Abbaye Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay) is a Benedictine & Cluniac monastery in Vézelay in the French department of Yonne. It was built between 1120 and 1150. The Benedictine abbey church, now the Basilica of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, with its complex program of imagery in sculpted capitals and portals, is one of the great masterpieces of Burgundian Romanesque art and architecture. Sacked by the Huguenots in 1569, the building suffered neglect in the 1600s and the 1700s centuries and some further damage during the French Revolution.

The church & hill were designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1979 because of their importance in medieval Christianity and outstanding architecture, with a boundary modification in 2007.